Hmm. I have boosted a couple lack luster sour's in the past with the tiniest dose of lactic acid and it really made a difference sour wise at first, but faded to a more fake not earned kettle sour "sour" with time. Any time I add acid for PH reasons I always use phosphoric just for the exact reason that I don't want to sour unintentionally.
In your case, are you doing anything on brew day to adjust the water pH, or to adjust water chemistry?
APA was mashed with 1.5% acid malt and distilled water treated with CaCl. That got me to a mash pH of 5.2 that dropped to 5.1 post boil. Same mash approach for the wheat resulting in a 5.5 mash pH, treated with 10ml/11.5L 10% phosphoric post boil for a 5.3pH in the fermenter. So nothing crazy low.
I think “twang” can be found anywhere, I honestly dont even think its a “flaw” more of a subjective experience thing, some people pick things up while others dont, maybe the ones that do are the odd ones out with us05
Im one of thoseI went through a small phase earlier this year where I wanted to see for myself whether I could switch to dry and stop messing with starters. What I found was it’s hard to compare yeasts. Different temps, fermentations schedules, pitch rates, characteristics, etc. But after 4 mediocre batches of dry, I quit. All liquid yeast batches came out good.
I know of one big brewery in CT that uses bricks of US-05. I got to chat with the owner/head brewer, and he said they use it a lot.
Updated recipe if you're interested:
I taste tartness in almost every green net right or of the fermenter. After bottle conditioning, it is usually gone.
Ditto. This is the taste of tiny amounts of yeast that haven't settled out yet.
Same here. I fermented a cream ale & an APA this year with it @ 65-68 and very clean flavor.
That's because there are so many other factors than just the yeast. We are definitely not all brewing the same!
Good advice. I am a fan of both US-05 and Nottingham, but I can see how some may not like one or the other. Just depends on what you want in your beer!
Sounds like my personal mystery with the coming and going head retention problem. I cannot give you any advice but just wanted to say, what would home-brewing be without these little things that we just cannot get a grasp on. Probably boring
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Hahahaha, that might the the true reason why it seems only to affect you. The wise us05 tries to teach you a valuable lesson, to use Yoda's words:
The only dry yeast I'm aware of that's called "Cali" or "California" by the actual packager is Mangrove Jack M54 "California Lager", which is probably actually a repack of Fermentis K-97 German Ale yeast, not US-05 which is entitled "American Ale" yeast by the manufacturer. People might say US-05 is from Chico, California, and they might be correct. But what was the source of information about your "Cali" yeast? Did it say so on the pack, or did somebody verbally imply that this pack of yeast was meant for California-style ales or lagers? There is also a big difference between California ale and California lager, two totally different types of beer. California lager generally refers to Anchor Steam, a warm fermented lager, which is nothing like an ale brewed with a Chico yeast such as US-05. This can all be confusing for sure. If you meant to make an Anchor Steam or a Kolsch-style beer, but used US-05 and fermented cool, yes that's not going to turn out quite right. And yes, likely peachy, as you found out. This is not to say that K-97 or M54 would have turned out a whole lot better -- those yeasts have their own problems too in my experience -- tart, hazy, and yeasty instead of peachy. Better choices for a hybrid ale/lager might include BRY-97, S-04, S-23, or W-34/70.
...or better to say of Lallemand's Köln, to be absolutely exact, as both are not nearly as tart as K-97
